The Korean Cultural Center Washington, D.C. (KCCDC) has teamed up with art gallery Culture House to host two joint exhibitions: "The Day After" and "Crane Dancers."
These joint exhibitions collectively feature six digital video works by three Korean artists, plus one large-scale outdoor mural done by a Korean-American artist - exploring the themes of recovering from the pandemic and the use of symbols of longevity. Together, these exhibitions will occupy almost the entire Culture House art space.
The Day After
The media art exhibition "The Day After" will be available to the public from September 18 to November 20. The exhibit examines the spatial, emotional, and physical effects of the pandemic and its unexpected changes to life and the environment.
The first KCCDC and Culture House exhibit features Korean media artists Ivetta Sunyoung Kang, Su Hyun Nam, and Jayoung Yoon exploring themes of the globally shared experience. This includes relief from anxiety through the connection of body and mind, the preciousness in the mundane, and the connection between mind and matter.
Ivetta Sunyoung Kang aims to alleviate uncertainty and anxiety through physical and emotional sensing activities incorporating the mind and body. 'Tenderhands' incorporates 40 performances of daily writing as an artistic show of exploring how notions of the human hand have changed in this period of social distancing.
Meanwhile, 'Proposition 1: Hands1 is a single-channel video work taking inspiration from a Korean children's game.
Su Hyun Nam restructures and pixelates diverse and complex parts of life in the city. Her single-channel works 'Metamorphosis' and 'Woven milieu' both speak to the beauty and meaning of the often overlooked mundane lives.
Jayoung Yoon inquires about memory, perception, and bodily sensations by utilizing human hair as her main medium. In her single-channel video 'Dreaming of Life' there is a skull sculpture that uses her own hair, examining the temporal nature of life.
Crane Dancers
On display in the Culture House Avant Garden, Crane Dancers is a 120-foot-long site-specific mural installation by artist Julia Chon, also known in art circles as Kimchi Juice. Her sweeping outdoor work is a modern reinterpretation of traditional Korean symbols of life and longevity subjected through a pop art filter.
By combining prominent Korean art elements in her works, Chon incorporates her ancestry and lineage with contemporary sensibilities to deliver the nuances of the Korean diaspora to her audiences.
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